


Kolya Zima

by TheSovereigntyofReality



Series: Transcendent Souls [4]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Gen, Not Natasha Friendly, Not Steve Friendly, Not Wanda Friendly, Team Tony
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-01
Updated: 2018-06-01
Packaged: 2019-05-16 20:55:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,986
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14818683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSovereigntyofReality/pseuds/TheSovereigntyofReality
Summary: Acidwing wanted to see Kolya from Soul set on certain Avengers.It had crossed my mind.I regret nothing.





	Kolya Zima

**Author's Note:**

> **Disclaimer: If you recognise it from somewhere else, it isn't mine.**
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> The story starts in the Johannesburg scene, before Wanda mind-rapes most of the Avengers.
> 
> Italics in speech means the characters are speaking a language other than English. ("Thank you, Captain Obvious!")

There was no need to hurry, so Pietro didn’t bother super-speeding them.

He and Wanda walked briskly through the base. While Ultron got the vibranium, they had to distract the Avengers. Wanda was looking forward to watching them die...one by one, until they finished with Stark. He deserved to die after what he’d done to them! They both paused, eyes on their targets as they entered the base.

Suddenly, both of them felt a hand grab the back of their necks. An odd paralysis overtook them. Their bodies reflexively jerked and their necks arched. A pulling sensation overtook them. They both became lightheaded. Wanda tried to scream but nothing came out of her mouth. When the hands finally released them, their knees buckled and they hit the ground.

A man with dark hair and blue eyes stepped out. ‘Wanda and Pietro Maximoff,’ he said. ‘Your powers have been stripped, and you are under arrest for treason.’ He turned his head. ‘Take them, boys.’ Then he stepped over their prone forms, ignoring them both.

Wanda hissed, trying to summon the powers she no longer had, and nearly screaming in rage when she realised this fact. Pietro stared in shock and horror. The uniformed men hauled the weakened twins up and dragged them away.

***

Ultron had nearly gotten the vibranium when it went flying away from him.

He chased after it, the five Avengers that’d entered the base rushing after him. He came into a wide, open room where a dark-haired human was standing there, observing the hunk of vibranium. Ultron attacked. The man lifted his eyes, the blue glinting in amusement. He lifted a hand from the metal.

Ultron was suddenly frozen in mid-air.

‘...What?’ Rogers demanded, sounding gobsmacked.

Idiot. It was obvious that this man was capable of what was called metallokinesis.

‘Who are you?’ Ultron asked.

‘My name is Kolya Zima,’ the man said in a Russian accent. ‘I was sent to deal with those crazy twins, and you.’ He moved his hand. There was a shift in Ultron’s breast. He grunted. Zima’s eyes narrowed. ‘But I have also been instructed to find out what you are.’

‘Obviously,’ Barton drawled, ‘he’s a murder bot Tony created.’

Zima looked at him like he was an idiot. ‘Tony Stark has been creating artificial intelligences since he was a teenager – established fact. It was a bragging point for his father.’ He affected a rather convincing American accent. ‘“Can your son make a fully-functional AI? Mine can make a fully-functional AI!”’ He dropped it. ‘He knows what he’s doing. More likely, “Ultron” was the name of a program Dr. Stark was working on that this...thing just appropriated.’

You never saw a bunch of people look so offended.

Except Tony Stark. He looked thoughtful, and he began muttering to whoever was on the other end of that communicator.

‘He kept secrets from the team!’ Rogers insisted. ‘He should have told us—’

Zima cut him off. ‘Oh, so Stark is supposed to tell you when he so much as goes to take a piss? He’s an engineer. It was an engineering project. Ordinarily, it might have had nothing whatsoever to do with you, and therefore none of your business.’

Rogers looked like he’d been slapped.

Romanoff stepped forward. ‘The fact remains that his experiments—’

Zima suddenly started laughing. He dropped the vibranium, pointed at her with his free hand and broke into full-on belly-laughs, but he never lost his grip on Ultron, no matter what he tried to do to escape. The door behind Zima opened and another man stuck his head in. Zima spoke in Russian.

‘ _It’s a Black Widow_!’

The other man burst out laughing too. He ran back through the door, repeating the statement in a yell nearly suffocated by his laughter. There were obviously more men in there, because they all began laughing just like Zima and the second Russian. Rogers, Barton, and Thor looked confused. Romanoff looked like she was smelling something nasty. Stark looked curious.

Zima composed himself and looked at Ultron. He lifted his hand to his earpiece. ‘Zhen?’ There was a pause. ‘Thank you.’

The last thing Ultron saw was Zima raise his other hand.

Ultron was torn apart.

***

The flight back to America was made in silence

Steve was nursing a black eye and bloody nose from where Kolya Zima had slammed his shield into his face when the former had tried to stop him from leaving. Natasha was sitting back, glaring at the wall, while Clint was watching the others. Tony, Bruce, Thor, and Maria were talking around Maria’s tablet while Tony piloted them back home.

Tony somehow had the feeling that he’d been seeing Kolya Zima again.

***

 **Moscow, Russia**  
Pietro had been told his situation in no uncertain terms. He sat in his cell, head hung and hunched over. Kolya was expecting Wanda to give them more trouble. After all, their powers (when they’d had them) had been indicative of their personalities. Pietro was impulsive so he’d been fast. Impulsive people made snap decisions and often regretted them later.

Wanda’s had been based on manipulation and making people think certain ways. She’d been the priority for power-stripping. Manipulative people rarely ever accepted their own culpability in any problems they encountered. And the records their spies had gotten from HYDRA indicated she played the victim card an awful lot – not that HYDRA would have cared about that.

Kolya stepped inside the room. He remembered the profile they’d gotten on Wanda. She only knew Sokovian and only learned English because that was the language Tony Stark spoke. You’d think whoever minded these kids in their parents’ stead would have noticed this behaviour and level of obsessive hatred. Then again, it was probably an orphanage.

Wanda looked up, tears streaking her cheeks but her eyes burning with hatred. ‘You took my powers!’ she hissed.

Kolya shrugged. ‘Had to, honey. Those were my orders.’ He would have even if they hadn’t been. She had no respect for the sanctity of the mind and would mind-rape people without a second thought.

Tears welled up in her eyes again. ‘Why?’ she whined. ‘I never did anything wrong!’

‘You joined a terrorist organisation to get the power to murder an international giant of industry.’

‘Tony Stark killed my parents!’ Wanda yelled – screeched, really. ‘I had to do something!’

‘Your country was in the middle of a civil war,’ Kolya said calmly. ‘Your parents were killed and you were orphaned as collateral damage. You were hardly unique. Hundreds of thousands of children experience just what you did and they don’t swear vengeance on the manufacturer of the first weapon that they happen to see. Stop making excuses. It’s not going to save you.’

Wanda made an outraged noise and lurched at him, but she was cuffed to the table.

‘It’s true,’ Kolya said, ‘Russia doesn’t like America, but we don’t dislike Tony Stark. In fact, we view him as a gateway to the future.’

‘How dare you!’ Wanda hissed.

‘Easily,’ Kolya said. ‘You don’t seem to understand the position you’re in, young lady, so let me make it clear for you: you joined a terrorist organisation that takes out anyone that it doesn’t like; that settled on Russian soil without our permission. You are from Sokovia which, until further notice, is still a Russian territory. And you tried to kill the world’s favourite futurist – including ours, notwithstanding the fact that he’s American.’ He grabbed her shoulder and pushed her back into her seat properly. ‘When the Head of State decides to make an example of you, no sob story is going to convince anyone to go easy on you.’

***

 **Stark Tower, USA**  
As Tony expected, Kolya Zima, of Russian intelligence, asked for a meeting.

Tony had them meet him in the SI building. Tony, Rhodey, Happy, and Pepper were waiting when they walked in. He was surprised when he saw the Chinese man with Mr. Zima’s entourage. They sat down and Mr. Zima started off.

‘I called this meeting because I thought you had some things you needed to know, and we’re also participating in the enquiry into the existence of Ultron.

Tony nodded.

The discussion started out simply enough. They wanted Tony to rehash what he’d reported for the enquiry. When they finished, the Chinese man – Zhen – had sat back.

‘Mr. Tan,’ Rhodey said.

‘Yes?’ Zhen smiled lightly, as if guessing what was about to be asked.

‘What did you do before Agent Zima destroyed Ultron?’ Rhodey asked. ‘We know you did something, because he checked in with you, but what was it?’

Zhen smiled. ‘Cut Ultron’s connection to the internet.’ He stood up. ‘I’m a technopath.’

‘Technopath?’ Tony asked.

Zhen nodded. ‘Hand me that tablet.’

Tony hesitated for a moment before he did as asked. Zhen didn’t even open it. He just held it and focused on it. For a few minutes, all eyes were on him. Tony felt his heart pounding. He wasn’t sure what Zhen was doing but there was something in him – similar to what told Tony he’d be seeing Kolya again – that screamed of sincerity.

Then they heard it.

‘Servers back online. System restored 100%. Thank you for your assistance, Mr. Tan.’

‘My pleasure.’ Zhen handed the tablet back and sat down.

‘JARVIS?’ Only years of keeping his emotions in check in public kept Tony from doing something embarrassing – like crying.

‘Yes, Sir. I am back. I am currently coordinating with FRIDAY to work out what I have missed.’

‘Good,’ Tony said. He looked at them. He wondered Zhen had brought JARVIS back, not that he was complaining but people generally did that sort of thing with an ulterior motive.

Zhen seemed to guess what he was asking. ‘AI or not, JARVIS was a murdered life form. The difference was that he could be brought back.’

‘What do you mean?’ Rhodey asked. ‘Murdered?’

Yeah, it was odd word choice.

‘In a moment.’ Mr. Zima said. ‘Mr. Stark, do you wonder why we Russians cracked up laughing at the sight of a Black Widow?’

‘It crossed my mind.’

‘Because the Black Widow is archaic. They were useful when the program was founded in the 1940s, back before women were considered capable of premeditated murder and deception. But their tactics never changed. Now, people expect it. They became a laughing stock in my country. Yet, every woman bearing the name of Black Widow has held the belief that they are the best at everything; that they are irreplaceable despite the fact that each replaced somebody. I mean, one only has to look at the post-data dump senate hearing to see that.’

Tony lifted a finger. ‘I get the feeling you’re coming to your point.’

‘We are.’ Mr. Zima drew a file out of his briefcase. ‘And may I offer my sincerest apologies and condolences.’ He set the file on the table.

Then he, and his entourage, stood up and walked out.

‘Huh?’ Happy voiced what they were all thinking.

Tony picked up the file, curious in spite of himself, and opened it. There were two smaller files inside. One was the minutes of a S.H.I.E.L.D. meeting. The other was a list of kills made by someone called “the Winter Solider”. Figuring the hit list was the first issue, Tony picked it up and scrolled through the names. Most of them meant nothing to him.  
Then Tony got to one of the later sections.

1987 – DECEMBER 16

TARGET: STARK, HOWARD A.W. – TERMINATED

COLLATERAL: STARK, MARIA C. – TERMINATED

And suddenly he was very glad they’d left so they didn’t witness Tony’s breakdown.

***

Zhen and Kolya sat on the plane, sharing a bottle of vodka.

‘ _Did we really tell him that because we don’t like Captain America_?’ Zhen asked.

‘ _Privately, yes_ ,’ Kolya said. ‘ _Officially, we wanted to liberate the great futurist from the hypocritical suffocation that is Steve Rogers_.’

**Author's Note:**

> I imagine Howard would have had to meet with Russians, even during the Cold War, which is how Kolya knows he bragged about Tony.
> 
> Yes, Kolya used his metallokinesis on Steve's shield when the latter tried to stop him from leaving and demand answers.
> 
> Yes, Zhen restored JARVIS. While Kolya and Zhen had their own reasons for the meeting (pertaining to them being Transcendent Souls), they did have to put up a diplomatic and patriotic front, which is why Kolya gives two reasons - neither of which are their own.


End file.
